While you struggle to make sense of Brexit, we’re struggling with the looming catastrophe that would be the election of Marine Le Pen. And up against her in the second round, the 39-year-old centrist reformer, Emmanuel Macron, is our new national sensation. He wants to abolish the once watertight left-right divide, upending decades of ideological confrontation.
He’s no Robespierre. He quoted Albert Camus in one of his rallies earlier this month: “Each generation no doubt believes it is doomed to remake the world. The task of our generation may be even larger: it consists in preventing the world from coming undone.” So, not entirely unBritish.
This is not a perfect parallel. Though withdrawal from the EU is sad and costly, it’s unlikely to unravel British democracy. By contrast, the victory of a far-right leader in France would be the death of all the values the republic is meant to uphold. Brexit may be troublesome for EU citizens living in the UK – and there have even been several xenophobic attacks since 23 June – but a Le Pen win would put 7 million or so French nationals of African, Arabic or Muslim descent under constant physical threat. The bigotry that pervades her rallies would be unleashed nationwide. The country’s fragile social fabric, which terrorism has already torn at, would be ripped apart entirely.
If the polls are right, Macron should win. He hasn’t yet. But if his rise has proved something the British might do well to heed, it is that a robust political centre does have a chance against rightwing populism. The centre is not ineffective, and it’s not outdated. The old structures may crumble – and indeed the traditional postwar parties in France are all but wiped out – but that does not mean the extreme parts of the political spectrum will be the only ones to grow out of the ruins.
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